Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Mike and I are technically entrepreneurs. We run our own business from our home. I don’t really consider myself an entrepreneur, though. Something about the title makes me think of multi-level marketing and short-lived dreams of making it big. What we do is smaller. In fact, what REAL entrepreneurs do is smaller.

Entrepreneur Magazine put out a diet book called The Entrepreneur Diet, which seems like a recipe for disaster, but instead, it’s an inspiring and HEALTHY way to get your life back in control.

Most importantly, I would say it’s a great diet book for everyone, not just entrepreneurs. Our physical fitness is directly related to how successful we are in our lines of work, whether we are self-employed or not. If you are healthy, strong and fit, you are much more able to deal with the stress of all work situations.

Being healthy will help your career, it’s true. That’s the premise of this book, but it goes beyond it and recommends slow and healthy steps. If you want to lose 25 pounds in 30 days, you might as well go somewhere else. This book gives you down-earth step to change your diet forever.

My only disappointment is that this book uses scare tactics to convince people that they need to lose weight. We all know that obesity aggravates disease. It’s still hard to lose weight, even when we know we should. They didn’t spend enough time talking about the rebel within us that makes us reach for unhealthy food when we have a healthy lunch packed and ready to eat.

The plan that they set out is healthy and very doable. It doesn’t make lofty claims and gives you plenty of ways to follow the diet. If you have ever felt like you didn’t get ahead in the business world because of your weight, this book is for you. It will give you good advice about dieting AND business.

A list of the chapter titles after the break: (more…)

Stop it.

Right now.

Stop beating yourself up. Stop avoiding people you knew. Stop telling yourself that you’re too fat to meet up with old friends. Stop it. Right now.

It’s time to be nice to yourself. It’s time to remember how beautiful you are. It’s time to take a moment with yourself and let love spread over you like a waterfall. Feel it pounding on your head, making it bend down under the weight of it. You deserve to be loved every day and you are the best person to love yourself. You know exactly what you need.

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

The folks at Motion Lingo were nice enough to send me an Adeo GPS Training Device to review on Starling Fitness. I worked out with it until it got too cold and polluted in Salt Lake City to run outside. I don’t know which will clear up first, the air quality or the freezing temperatures. Either way, I am stuck indoors.

The Adeo is a very simple gadget that you plug your iPod (or ANY MP3 player) into and you plug your headphones into it. You can hear your music, but a voice will give you updates about your run. Similar to the Nike+iPod, it’s actually a very cool gadget. Here is a list of its best features:

• It measures everything, not just running: The disadvantage of gadgets like the Nike+iPod is that they only track your runs. The Adeo can track your runs, your bike rides, your ski runs and your hikes (with elevation tracking). Their software tracks all of your workouts in one place.

• The MotionTrak Software doesn’t need to be online: My biggest beef with the Nike+iPod setup is that all my stuff is online. I can’t just save all those cool graphs and charts on my own computer.

• It gives you updates how YOU want them: Using their MotionTrak software, you tell the Adeo how often you want updates and what kind. If you want to hear how far you’ve run every two minutes, you can set it. I have my demonstration unit set to give me a different update every few minutes: total time, distance run, time of the day, current speed, etc. Also, you can tell it to stop telling you things. I don’t care about my elevation on my runs because it doesn’t change, but if I was skiing or hiking, elevation might be pretty important. You can set up different update modes based on which activity you are doing.

• It works with any MP3 Player: I really like that I can use any MP3 player with the Adeo. I tried it with my Treo, and it worked just as well with it as my Nano. This is not just another iPod accessory. It works with any music player, even your old cassette player or CD player. That’s a far cry from so many products who are jumping on the bandwagon to work with the iPods. The Adeo is completely backward compatible.

• It’s more accurate than accelerometers: Running shoe pods like the Nike+iPod depend on accelerometers and other devices to measure the distance. For some people they can be horribly inaccurate. Once the Adeo locks onto its satellites, you have a perfectly accurate measurement of the distance you ran (or rode your bike, etc.).

• You don’t have to look at anything: Since the totals and the updates are spoken over your music, you never have to check your watch or iPod to see how far you’ve gone. This is especially cool if you are skiing and couldn’t possibly check your watch even if you wanted to.

There are some disadvantages to this unit:

• It’s kind of big: Seriously, it’s amazingly small for what it does, but it is a little big to carry around. I worked out using the Adeo in the fall, so I had a coat with many pockets to stuff it and my Nano into, but during the summer, I’m suddenly pocketless and I would have to carry it in my hands.

• It takes about five minutes or so to lock on to the satellites: You can’t start locking onto the satellites while you’re in your house, so you have to go outside and just stand around waiting for it to fall into its routine. If you start running before it gets a good lock on the satellites, it won’t be an accurate measurement of your workout. I don’t spend five full minutes stretching before my workout. Do you? Even if I did, I don’t like to do those stretches outside. So, I just ended up standing like a fool outside just waiting for it to do its thing with the satellites.

• It doesn’t work on a treadmill: This is a no-brainer. Since GPS systems track how far on the Earth you’ve moved, they really are useless if you’re running on the treadmill. To the Adeo, it just looks like you’re running in place because you are. For some people, this isn’t an issue, but there are a good six months every year where I’m not going to run outside. It’s just not going to happen, especially when I have a comfortable treadmill calling to me. None of those treadmill workouts are recorded on the MotionTrak software.

• You can’t look at anything: You ONLY get updates spoken over the music, so if you want to hurry and check your mileage, you really can’t. You have to wait until the next pre-measured update. It would have been really helpful sometimes to have a screen to glance at. Auditory feedback isn’t enough sometimes.

I didn’t know the cost of this unit when I was testing it. I had assumed it was about three hundred dollars because that’s the going cost for a good GPS tracking device. When I saw that the Adeo was only $150 at Amazon, I was shocked. Suddenly, all those little complaints I had for it went right out the window. At $150, you’re getting way more than your money’s worth.

On the whole, the Adeo is a great gadget. If you already own a iPod Nano, then the Nike+iPod Sport Kit is a cheaper option for you and almost as accurate. If you own ANY other MP3 player, including a Video iPod, then you should definitely go with the Adeo instead of buying a Nano just to run with. It’s not only cheaper, but you get more accurate readings. Just make sure you have running shorts with pockets.

I’ve talked about Stevia before:

• Starling Fitness » Stevia: Is It Safe?

I have a kind of love/hate relationship with it. I like the way it sweetens food. It doesn’t taste too sweet the way Nutrasweet and sacchrine can. I don’t like that it hasn’t gone through the process of becoming a food additive and has slipped in the back door by calling itself a dietary supplement. Most importantly, it’s fake food, but I still like the taste of it.

I have been using Torani syrups to sweeten and flavor my milk, making my own steamer in the microwave. I talked about that here:

• Starling Fitness » Steamer: A Pleasant Way to Drink Milk

Last week, while I was in my local health food store, I noticed a large selection of flavored liquid stevia from Sweet Leaf. I bought the vanilla creme and tried it. I loved it so much, I went back and tried all the flavors they had available. Now, instead of having huge bottles of flavored syrups on my countertop, I have small bottles of liquid stevia in my fridge.

Now, I find myself recommending them to you after going on a tirade about fake food and Z Trim yesterday. What’s the difference? Why didn’t the liquid stevia set off my paranoia again like it did with the Flavor Diet Sprays and Z Trim?

It seems like a double-standard in my mind. Maybe it’s because the package didn’t scream, “Use Stevia! It will make you skinny!” When I went to their website, however, it was everything that makes me angry. Here’s just a glimpse of what it was like:

“Send us your artificial sweeteners, loaded with harmful chemicals and toxins. And in return we’ll send you a safe and even sweeter alternative with absolutely zero calories or chemicals. Hmmm…toxically artificial or naturally superior? You make the choice.”

I think the biggest turning point for Stevia for me was this stevia article in Wikipedia:

• Stevia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikipedia articles can be edited by anyone, but if you look at the bottom of the article, they have included all the links to the studies that back up the claims. This phrase was the kicker for me:

“Indeed, millions of Japanese people have been using stevia for over thirty years with no reported or known harmful effects. Similarly, stevia leaves have been used for centuries in South America spanning multiple generations in ethnomedical tradition as a treatment of type II diabetes.”

I read that article a couple of months after writing Stevia: Is It Safe? Since then, I have gone back to using stevia. Is it safe? I don’t know for sure. Is it fake food? Yeah, it is. Do I like it anyway? Yeah, I do.

What do you think?

Maybe it’s because I was fed too much sorbitol as a child and dealt with the painful side-effects at the age of five. Maybe it’s because we have been promised weight loss for over fifty years with artificial sweeteners with only obesity rates rising. Whatever the reason, the minute I read this article from Slashfood, my hackles raised up.

• What is Z Trim? – Slashfood

Z Trim is being marketed as a fat replacement. It is made of oat fiber that is ground so fine that when it is reconstituted with water, it feels like creamy fat. Oat fiber, that’s a good thing, so I don’t think Z Trim is going to poison me or give me cancer, but something about it just sets off my paranoia.

Maybe it’s because they replaced the fat in the ranch dressing in Pittsburgh schools, testing it on underage children without telling them. Maybe it’s because it is being marketed in pills labeled “appetite control.” Maybe it’s because it is all being sold as a supplement, which requires less testing than a food additive would. Maybe it’s because the Z Trim website is so greenwashed that you can’t help but notice the huge shafts of wheat and the white-washed farm in the background. It all smacks of deception to me.

Whatever the reason, I’m not buying it. I was told too many times that if I drank sacchrine-laced soda, I would get thinner. I’m not about to believe that any fake fat is going to make me thinner. The only thing that ever made me thinner was eating whole, fresh food every two hours. I’ve had it with fake food.

I have finally finished the editing for the Scott Matheson Wetlands Preserve Walk in Moab, Utah. I’m so excited! This is a different kind of exercise video for use on the treadmill. This is film of a walk around a wetlands preserve. All you have are the sounds of footsteps, birds singing and maybe even a little water (although the Utah desert is not really known for water).

Here is a glimpse of what the video is like:

I have released two similar DVDs to this in the past: Swami’s Beach and Sugarhouse Walk. The Moab Walk uses the same camera as the Sugarhouse Walk, so there are no vibration problems that might make you motion sick. One of my readers mentioned that whenever I turn the camera to one side or another, it makes her walk funny on the treadmill. She’s right, I find myself doing the same thing and grabbing the handrails to steady myself. This video does a lot of looking to the side (mostly to avoid viewing other walkers on the trail and to see the pretty wildflowers). If that is a problem for you, this video does it a lot!

Estimated Distance: 2.0 Miles
Estimated Speed: 2.3 mph
Time: 52:00 Minutes

I’m offering this workout DVD for $5 plus shipping.

Order Starling Fitness Walking Videos Here

You can see the route I walked here. The video goes around the loop twice. I tried to be crafty when I was filming it so you wouldn’t notice, but just now I realized that I have to tell you that I walked the circuit twice, so that you would know the accurate mileage.

Video Description:

It was a hot day and the signs all over Moab said, “Did you remember your water?” I brought a bottle of water, but I was filming, so I couldn’t just take a swig of it. Halfway through the walk I could hear every swish it made in my backpack, wishing I could take a drink. The dry heat seemed to suck all the moisture out of my body, but the Scott Matheson Wetland Preserve was shady.

The trees protected me from the blistering sun. As I walked along the trail, I filmed wildflowers and I could even hear birds. I wanted to hide in the shade of the house at the end of the trail and watch the birds from its quiet solitude, but I was intent on walking. Investigating the little-known paths was a bonus because I found my way to Kane Creek. I turned around and walked it all over again. When I was finished, I enjoyed the red rocks and watched the off-roaders drive by.

Then I turned off my camera and gulped down all my water in one fail swoop. Should have brought two bottles…

Order Starling Fitness Walking Videos Here

For More Information about the wetlands preserve:
The Nature Conservancy in Utah – Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve

For some of us, we can’t go back into our memory far enough to remember the first time we realized we were fat. We just always had been told we were fat. For others, weight gain is a recent thing. They grew up thin with no weight problems and the weight just crept on over the years.

What is your first fat memory?

Did you notice your body and realize you were overweight or did someone else point it out to you?

What did you think?

How did it all make you feel?

I vividly remember the first day that I realized I was fat. I was about four years old watching television in the living room at my grandma’s house. My grandma and my mom were in the kitchen talking. I heard my name and started listening to what they were saying. My grandma started the conversation,

“I noticed that she has another roll on her stomach. We really need to do something about her.”

My mom came to my defense,

“I’m not going to bug her about losing weight. She’s only four years old.”

The one thing that was obvious is that both my mom and my grandma thought I was fat. That was the day that I decided I was fat. After looking at the pictures from my childhood, I have come to realize that I wasn’t fat. My grandma was obsessed with weight: both her own and the people around her.

What if that is true about you? What if that person who pointed at you and called you fat was just lying and trying to hurt your feelings? We are all beautiful. Take some time today and try to remember the first time anyone called you fat. Write down how you felt and try to research to see if it was true or not. The first step toward getting the body you want is being truthful with yourself. Knowing the evolution of your health is the only way you’re going to know the truth.

Colleen Wainwright has Crohn’s Disease. To control it, she followed the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), which severly limits which foods you can and cannot eat. It’s not like she follows the diet to stay thin. It was the only way of eating that kept her out of pain. I understand this. When I was dealing with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), I tried a number of changes to my diet. None of them really kept me out of pain, but I clung on to hope more than anything. When I discovered acidophilus and suddenly found myself without pain no matter what I ate, I had to deal with all the cravings over the last five years.

Colleen is in a similar situation. She had been faithfully following SCD for years, but she obviously feels better and the temptation of “illegal” foods has hit her hard.

• communicatrix » Blog Archive » The root of rye toast lust

The description of her inner voices in this entry sounds exactly what I dealt with after I found my “cure” for IBS. I said the exact same thing in my Video Confessional. I wanted to binge just to make up for those five years of deprivation. I love her description here:

I’m not even especially fond of Butterfingers.

I’m still sorting it out, but I think the kernel of understanding lodged somewhere in the back molar of my consciousness looks something like “You are not the boss of me!” Or, as I put it to my pal, Heathervescent, between bites of generously buttered, 100% forbidden rye toast at breakfast this morning, “F*CK YOU, MOTHERF**KER! You are not the boss of me!”

So many years of sucking it up, coloring within the lines, being a good girl, stuffing it down. So much rage. So much fear. It’s going to find voice one way or t’other. And “F*ck you, motherf**ker! You are not the boss of me!” is pretty eloquent, if you ask me.

After five years of staying away from forbidden foods, I had that voice inside of me, too. I am healthiest when I allow myself small quantities of anything I want. Making a list of forbidden foods, unhealthy foods or illegal foods is just my first step to a major binge down the road.

Update: Colleen has had a breakthrough with her binges and describes it here:

• communicatrix » Blog Archive » French fries at the O.K. Corral: or, Telling Monkey-brain to go f*ck itself

I love this photo of the Eureka Dunes from Jon Huang. Here is his description:

“Walking up a steep sand dune feels like being on a stairmaster. Every step upwards you take, it sets you back half a step. To prevent yourself from slipping back you need to make faster steps. The Eureka dunes are over 600 ft high from base to peak, probably the tallest dunes in N. America. Hiking up was quite a workout — especially with camera gear and tripod!”

Whenever I feel a little bored on the treadmill, I try to remember WHY I exercise. I walk on the treadmill and ride the exercise bike in the winter so I can hike and mountain bike in the spring, summer and fall. I want to be fit enough to see beautiful sites like this every day.

Via: Two-Heel Drive: January 2007 Archives

I really don’t know how to classify this entry. Is Flavor Diet Spray a gadget? Is it a diet supplement? Is it something we should be wary of? I have no idea. This product was featured in Time Magazines Amazing Inventions of 2005. I never heard of it, but it’s still available today via their website.

• Flavor Diet Spray

A big problem I have with the way I’m tempted to eat when I’m in the dieting mentality is my attraction to fake food. Because I don’t allow myself real food when I’m dieting, even in small portions, I tend to resort to fake foods. I think I would classify this Flavor Diet Spray in the fake food category.

Watch out. If this product looks appealing to you, it’s because you have limited your diet too much. Whichever spray sounded good to you, allow yourself a small portion of the REAL thing this week. Don’t settle for fake food. Find a way to work the real thing into your lifestyle without damaging yourself.